Sign in

Metaphors and Beyond

@metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social
204 followers 273 following 534 posts

Devoted to discovering, identifying, and using uncommonly high quality non-literal comparisons (metaphors, metonymies, similes, analogies, etc.). Send 'em my way! For much, much more go to metaphorsandbeyond dot com.

PostsRepliesMedia
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Peggy Noonan on corruption in government: “Governments are worse than networks because the former have the power to crush you, and you only get one at a time, and you can't change the channel except every four years. “ 1/2
100
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Dawn Gilbertson in the WSJ offers a disgruntled air passenger’s perception that neatly combines two stealth metaphors (treat like royalty and sending to the back of the bus) to capture the essence of the mistreatment from the airline: 1/2
110
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
From Jonathan Martin in Politico: “We're going through a second farm crisis right now, Farmageddon,” said Turek, the Democratic state lawmaker running against Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) for an open Senate seat. #portmanteau #languagefun #farm #Iowa
010
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Bret Stephens on Trump 2017: “Shameless rhetoric will always find a receptive audience with shameless people. Donald Trump’s was the greatest political strip-tease act in U.S. political history: the dirtier he got, the more skin he showed, the more his core supporters liked it.“ #burlesque #insight
010
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Peter Wehner: on Natalie Harp: “She is further distorting the world for a man who, with every passing year, is detaching more and more from reality. His world is narrowing to a pinhole.“ #perspective #insight #languagepower
020
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Yahoo News piece concerning illicit arrest of a Florida citizen through the direction of a ALPR/Flock camera misidentification: “A 23-Year-Old Facing Life in Prison Six months of investigative tunnel vision ended with handcuffs on the wrong person.“ “Tunnel vision“ of course has been with us 1/2
141
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
John Pavlovitz on Trump supporters who “. . . willingly choosing to engage in wild intellectual and theological gymnastics“ and are “willing to let America die on the altar of their pride.“ 1/2
100
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
John Herrman on social media informational labels circa 2015-2016: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant, the platforms seemed to say, but the labels resembled just a few more additional fluorescent tubes installed in the ceiling.“ #insight #perspective #sunlight #disinfectant
010
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Mary Geddry on Steven Miller's new ploy: “Miller announced a constitutional theory the Court had just buried and complimented it on its health.“ #insight #perspective #understanding #citizenship
020
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Mary Geddry on key aspects of the Iran war: This is Schrödinger’s War: each attack is simultaneously a response to the previous strike and the provocation for the next one, depending on which government opens the box. #insight #perspective
000
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
“. . . a visit to McDonald's has become, at least for some customers, as frustrating as getting stuck in an artificial intelligence loop with your cable company.“ This review of McD's going remote/automated for their customers revives yet again a favorite simile frustration focus: cable companies!
020
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Peculation and beyond. www.metaphorsandbeyond.com/post/who-gav...
metaphorsandbeyond.com
Who gave them the pass-code?
Comparison:. . . Trump, his children and their hangers-on started using his current stint in the White House as a bejeweled A.T.M. vomiting crisp million-dollar bills into their greedy handsFrank Brun...
010
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
From a Bloomberg email update: “Chinese hedge funds that won big on AI are starting to look for exits.“ The actual Bloomberg headline: “Chinese Investors Exit Hong Kong Stocks as AI Woos Money Onshore.“ 1/2
150
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Solar storms? Magnetosphere protection? Star Trek-like shield? Stormwall? School-bus-size satellites dumping barium? Air bags? Christopher Mims at the WSJ leads us through many pertinent comparisons to better understand a planet-threatening problem from our Sun. #insight #perspective #understanding
020
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
M. Schulman in New Yorker on USA comedy: “It’s possible to see David Wain’s career as a skeleton key for the past thirty years of comedy. In the nineties, he was part of the State, an eleven-member troupe that formed at N.Y.U. in 1988 and had its own antic sketch show on MTV from 1994 to 1995.“ 1/2
120
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Shanley Hurt on Geddry Substack: “For decades, [NATO] was built around the assumption that the United States was the anchor. Now the anchor occasionally gives interviews about how much it resents the boat.“ Personifying the anchor proves a weighty means of indicating turmoil. #insight #perspective
010
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Start saving??! “Memory prices may come down in the next few years as new RAM factories come online. But Apple’s prices are unlikely to ever go back. ‘Prices generally are a one-way ratchet,‘ Wamsi Mohan, an Apple analyst at Bank of America, told me. ‘Customers acclimate to paying more.‘“
021
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Can you see on YOUR two-wheeler? #perspective #insight bit.ly/SG2026a
bit.ly
Left unsaid
It’s difficult to ride a bicycle in the pitch darkness. We need to see where we’re going to avoid obstacles. And it’s hard to maintain our balance. When we choose to avoid the con…
000
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Amanda Rae Hartley recovering from injury: “Today I feel considerably better but I'm still taking it easy because yesterday my skeleton decided to hold a company wide meeting and every joint showed up prepared to speak.“ 1/2
110
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Mike Gansey, president of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers on the types of players he wants (and doesn’t want): “. . . I want fountains, not drains. I want guys with high character, guys with high work ethics, and guys that want to be in Philadelphia.” 1/2
110
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Steve Martin on IG: “We love working with Jennifer Saunders, for whom chewing the scenery is fine dining.“ Farm-to-theater table??! Hmmm . . . #languagefun
021
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Refrigerator magnets and Scrabble tile bags! Mary Geddry on Trump in a Fox interview with his Daughter-in-law: “Then the fog machine really got going. 1/5
120
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Mary Geddry on Trump on MoCA: “The MoCA is not an intelligence test. It is a screening tool used to detect possible cognitive impairment. Passing it does not mean you are a genius. 1/3
110
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
How would you enhance a mundane, shopworn, stealth one-word (verb) metaphor? For instance “roar,' or “melt,“ or “spiral,“ or “roar,“ or "crash"? Ian Bogost in The Atlantic takes the ordinary stealth metaphor of “howl,“ and enlarges its scope and importance by going intergalactic: “cosmic howl." 1/2
120
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
@szacharek.bsky.social notes about Steven Soderbergh: “He’s like a jewel thief in reverse, dropping off the gems then vanishing into the night.“ How many other writers do you know who declare an “in reverse“ to capture a comparison insight? #perspective #insight #Soderbergh #metaphorsandbeyond
010
Reposted by Metaphors and Beyond
Larry Hochman @larryhochman.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
I'm not saying this nation's senior administration isn't capable of holding their own in China. I'm just saying they conduct themselves like a dysfunctional high school prom committee fighting over which DJ to hire. I guess I am saying that. No offense intended to dysfunctional prom committees.
2627
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Mary Geddry on Giants and Mosquitoes: "Protecting almost every vessel passing through Hormuz is vastly more expensive than forcing the world to wonder whether the next vessel might be hit, 1/2
120
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Mary Geddry on recent Strait of Hot Hormuz actions: Project Freedom,. . . was not strategic brilliance. It was the latest object hurled at the wall. . . . 1/2
120
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Mary Geddry:  “It turns out war is only war if the White House clicks ‘confirm.‘ Until then, it’s just a lightly militarized misunderstanding involving explosives. “ #insight #perspective
031
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Mary Geddry on those in seemingly solid political bases: “The bases still love their own teams, of course, but the independents are drifting, and not in a ‘let’s find common ground‘ kind of way. In fact, voters in both camps increasingly want their leaders to fight harder, not cooperate. 1/2
100
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
The Globe and Mail's Coyne created a doozy: Occam's kazoo. Elegant, precise, and telling. Thank you. #languagefun #insight #perspective
000
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Mary Geddry on Substack cuts loose on Trump and Trumpism around the occasion of Earth day and various other points of focus: “Earth is not sending us a polite memo. It is pounding on the door.” And, “Nothing says master strategist quite like removing the brakes 1/2
120
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Levend Montgomery on people and politics: “The republic needs citizens who think, vote, serve, and hold power accountable. What it does not need — what it has never needed — is citizens who have made politics the load-bearing wall of their identity." 1/2
110
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Brandi Carlile to Amy Poehler concerning why she would rather spend a day together with a friend while not needing to talk (much) than to yak a bunch: “I’d rather be together, but that doesn’t mean that I want to like lay myself down across the puddle like a jacket to spend time with you.” #simile
000
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Who's knocking on your cyber-door? Seth Godin on Spamming AI Agents with sales pitches: “And now, here come AI agents. These are spammers disguised as door-to-door salespeople. They know your name, your history, your details . . . . 1/2
120
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Bill Whitehead offers one of those cartoons that in the hands of a talented writer could form a potent verbal analogy. Which writer, content producer, or wordsmith do YOU know who could turn this into a great analogy? Do tell! #languagefun #metaphorasandbeyond
010
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Follow-through seths.blog/2026/03/foll...
seths.blog
Follow-through
How does the ball know? In tennis, golf or just about all ball sports, the follow-through determines the flight of the ball. Great players always have a complete and confident follow-through. But t…
100
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Ah, when SCOUS fires up the boiler some people have to take off their crowns. Do tell. How's your budget vis-à-vis the Republican tariffs? www.metaphorsandbeyond.com/post/who-exa...
metaphorsandbeyond.com
Who, exactly, is doing maintenance on this boiler?
Comparison:. . . the legal architecture is one of those cursed American contraptions with twelve brass levers and a smoking boiler. In February, the Supreme Court ruled that IEEPA does not authorize t...
000
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Mary Geddry concerning wartime supplies: “. . . the administration is also out here behaving like someone who just opened the pantry and discovered it’s mostly napkins and one stale sleeve of crackers.“ Oops. Call to nearby grocery stores?! #insight #perspective #awareness #metaphorsandbeyond
010
Reposted by Metaphors and Beyond
Charlayn von Solms @charlayn.eurosky.social · 03/03/2026
Chicken Licken's homage to Bollywood www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xu-...
youtube.com
Just Enough Extra
YouTube video by Chicken Licken SA
271
Reposted by Metaphors and Beyond
Charlayn von Solms @charlayn.eurosky.social · 02/03/2026
Casino Brawl-Bawl @postmonkey.bsky.social
151
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
S. Hurt's on Oregon's Bay Area: “There are weeks when the headlines feel like a fist, when the world seems to be run by people who talk about ‘options‘ and ‘leverage‘ the way you might talk about furniture, and the cost of those options is paid in bodies that never agreed to be a bargaining chip.“
A human fist overlaid with scary news headlines
020
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Bret Stephens in the NYT on the Trump State of the Union Speech: “All of which means that Trump is becoming the very thing that destroyed the Democrats in the last term: a reality-denial machine. 1/2
120
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
From Shanley Hurt: Loud, brash, and rude vs. quiet, committed, and purposeful in the reintroduction of juvenile giant tortoises to Floreana Island in the Galápagos: “The project is not a simple rewind button; it is more human than that, messier, more honest, and therefore more miraculous. 1/3
110
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Mary Geddry on the Supreme Court decision on King Trump's tariffs. "Three words [It does not.] that function, in context, as a legal guillotine." Off with their tariffs! #perspective #SCOTUS #insight
100
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
According to Seth Godin our use of tech to accomplish previously challenging tasks (e.g., portrait photos, or typesetting) “began with the Model T. Before that, people with enough money to buy a car also had a driver.“ How often do you use historical analogies to create perspective? 1/2
120
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
“Sky Puppies” a brilliant use of words to create awareness and concern. Well done! Thanks to Beth S. for the post elsewhere! Just don’t tell Bruce Wayne! #insight #perspective
Logo of a bat with the words protect sky puppies surrounding it.
000
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
“That last stretch where time stops behaving like a straight line and starts acting like a nervous animal pacing the room.“ . . . “Inside the National Press Club, the building where American political reality is usually softened, filtered, and politely explained, State of the Swamp will kick 1/2
120
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Concerning Pam Bondi: “‘Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza and you deliver every time he tells you to go after James Comey, Letitia James, Lisa Cook and Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve Board, and members of Congress,’ [Jamie] Raskin said.” Edge out Domino’s & the Hut??!
010
Metaphors and Beyond @metaphorsandbeyond.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
“. . . it would be a mistake to treat President Trump as the origin of the ultra-powerful presidency. He is merely picking up the weapons that previous administrations left lying around and waltzing through the loopholes they opened.“ -libertarian Katherine Mangu-Ward What a loophole waltz! Whoa!
000